3D scanner
Anyone have experience in lower cost scanners? I have objects up to 10”/2.54cm I’d like to import to the Mini, as well as organics like insects for jewelry. The searches I’ve done show products way out of my budget, I’d like something that can capture within the Mini’s resolution but preferably doesn’t cost too much more than the Prusa itself.
Best Answer by Gordon W:
You may want to watch this video from Thomas Sanladerer It may be that Photogrammetry would be a solution for some of your needs. Although I have no experience on scanning, I suspect insects will need some fairly high level kit to give good detail.
RE: 3D scanner
You may want to watch this video from Thomas Sanladerer It may be that Photogrammetry would be a solution for some of your needs. Although I have no experience on scanning, I suspect insects will need some fairly high level kit to give good detail.
RE: 3D scanner
@gordon-w
Thank you, that’s an intriguing approach that is definitely a good fit for my larger objects, and I have the PC hardware to handle the re-stitching. Not sure now how I’ll handle very small organics but that’s a less common use case for me.
RE: 3D scanner
@pococurante
It's certainly worth a try before you invest more money in a scanner 😀 There are a number of turntable designs like https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/30936-photogrammetry-turntable-made-from-mmu2s-spoolhold that might be of interest.
RE: 3D scanner
Our local 'makerspace' got a 3d scanner (a NextEngine) a while back and I took the 101-level class to learn how to use it.
For trivial objects, such as a cube, it works quite well.
For finely detailed objects (example used in class was a Baby Yoda bust) it's somewhat tedious, with quite a bit of 'real work' in matching points between views and editing out artifacts. Complex shapes with concave sections are particularly tricky.
One lady in the class actually volunteered to sit still with her chin on the platform while the instructor did a scan of her face. There was not enough class time to post-process it, but the instructor said that with a couple of hours of work it would produce a fairly realistic 3d printable model.
As of this time I haven't had any job to do that would make use of it.
RE: 3D scanner
I learned iPhones with FaceID can do 3D scans of onvironment, that's what FaceID uses among other things. There are apps which allow use of that feature to scan 3D objects.
We can argue though whether iPhone X or 11 or 12 are cheap 3D scanners. They are not cheap, but hey, you can use that 3D scanner as fully-featured smartphone too 😀
RE: 3D scanner
Thanks folks, there are some really good background considerations - here much appreciated. I’m going to go with Gordon’s Photogrammetry suggestion. I’m talking with folks on the Reddit r/Photogrammetry channel as well as r/Meshroom, and going to run through some tutorials on YouTube. I did look at folks using the iPhone 11 LIDAR. I can’t afford those after buying the Prusa and getting my light box set up. 😀 But that’s a very promising future approach that’s probably a good match for the MINI’s resolution.